It's not exactly high on my list of concerns, but most of the important questions have already been asked.

The original had alcohol (Snake Squeezins), so I assume WL2 will as well. What about drugs? Fallout got a lot of mileage out of combat (and other) drugs like Jet, Psycho, Mentats, and such. Also, FO3 and NV had plenty of cigarettes, but they were just vendor trash. Avatars in the original showed characters smoking, so will that be possible? Hopefully as something other than "HA HA TAKE 50% OF YOUR HEALTH IN DAMAGE, MR SMOKEY!"

I like playing juicers I don't recall many games allowing you to play a character like this, but I enjoy playing Fallout as a consistently drugged out maniac. The punishments from withdrawal make for an intresting game when you run out of your goto chems as well.

In a recent interview with Brian, he did mention that you will be able to pick what type of cigarettes your Rangers like to smoke. Granted that was in reference to customization, so not sure if the Rangers will literally smoke in game, but it's a start.

The biggest failure in the recent past is this assumption that the audience is not smart.Too much effort is being spent making it dummy proof..all the clues are being held right in front of their nose.The exploration and journey is the reward

In a recent interview with Brian, he did mention that you will be able to pick what type of cigarettes your Rangers like to smoke. Granted that was in reference to customization, so not sure if the Rangers will literally smoke in game, but it's a start.

I've been wondering about that whole cigarette thingy. We all know that Wasteland 2 will take place over 100 years after the war. I've been thinking that won't cigarettes go bad in their packs eventually? Sure the packs are wrapped in plastic (at least in here), but eventually humidity will creep in and I guess precious smokes start to grow mold. Of course some people might have managed to start growing tobacco plants and manage to salvage proper factory to make new ones, but what about the rolling paper and filters? I don't think anyone has made those things in a while...

Wile wrote:I've been wondering about that whole cigarette thingy. We all know that Wasteland 2 will take place over 100 years after the war. I've been thinking that won't cigarettes go bad in their packs eventually? Sure the packs are wrapped in plastic (at least in here), but eventually humidity will creep in and I guess precious smokes start to grow mold.

They'd be stale as fuck long before mold became an issue.

Of course some people might have managed to start growing tobacco plants and manage to salvage proper factory to make new ones, but what about the rolling paper and filters? I don't think anyone has made those things in a while...

Tabacco's a pretty hardy plant. While most American tobacco probably still comes from the east, there's a genus that's native to the southwest (Coyote) that could certainly still be around. Rolling paper isn't anything special and could easily be made as long as some form of paper production was possible; conversely, it could just be made from rice paper or hemp (another hardy plant). The filter would be the most dificult thing. Cellulose acetate could potentially be a bit of a pain to make. And, frankly, cigarettes have existed a long longer than filters have.

Now, I wouldn't expect them to have, say, menthol cigarettes or flavored cigarettes, but they could certainly have different brands of normal ones, even if they have to be hand rolled like in Westerns.

-You see: cigarrete.
-Increases Perception for 1 point, side effects; highly addictive, diseases affecting the heart, liver and lungs, being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (including emphysema and chronic bronchitis), and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer). It also causes peripheral vascular disease and hypertension. Did i mention is the first cause of death in the Postapocalyptic Wasteland? (yes, bigger than bullets).
-Ranger #2 smokes the cigarrete.

Even basic/generic smokes as an aesthetic thing would be nice, the lung cancer problem really wouldn't weight much in the wasteland.

reiniat wrote:-You see: cigarrete.
-Increases Perception for 1 point, side effects; highly addictive, diseases affecting the heart, liver and lungs, being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (including emphysema and chronic bronchitis), and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer). It also causes peripheral vascular disease and hypertension. Did i mention is the first cause of death in the Postapocalyptic Wasteland? (yes, bigger than bullets).
-Ranger #2 smokes the cigarrete.

If that warning doesn't get across (read: satisfy moral guardians), I don't know what will.
...But wait, how the heck is it a bigger cause of death than bullets?

Drool wrote:
Now, I wouldn't expect them to have, say, menthol cigarettes or flavored cigarettes, but they could certainly have different brands of normal ones, even if they have to be hand rolled like in Westerns.

Heh, my grandfather used to roll his own cigarettes without filter. According to him filtered cigarettes were for "ladies and fucking whimps!"

reiniat wrote:-You see: cigarrete.
-Increases Perception for 1 point, side effects; highly addictive, diseases affecting the heart, liver and lungs, being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (including emphysema and chronic bronchitis), and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer). It also causes peripheral vascular disease and hypertension. Did i mention is the first cause of death in the Postapocalyptic Wasteland? (yes, bigger than bullets).
-Ranger #2 smokes the cigarrete.

As much as I personally don't like smoking. The concept has been around for a loooooong time. I reckon you would get a resurgence of pipes as well, as paper production will likely be less "clean".
Also I think it likely hemp smoking may be more common than tobacco, but I am not basing that on any sort of facts.

Could be a side story, maybe someone is trading in tobacco, and another place remembers the history of tobacco prior to the war, and thus a conflict erupts as they attempt to prevent its revival..... All sorts of moral dilemmas for people

Also smokers should find it harder to hide. I have a couple of ex soldier mates, and they commented on how easy it was to tell where the smokers were when they were out bush. (They themselves did not smoke)
Anyone who doesn't smoke will know what I am talking about. Smokers usually don't because one of the first things to go is their sense of smell.

I think it could be interesting to have, for example, heroin production involved in a storyline. For example, there's a poppy growing operation that someone wants you to destroy, but when you look into it the opiates are used for medical purposes, then you have to make one of those no "right" choice kind of decisions where you decide whether the potential for good outweighs the potential for misuse. Perhaps both would result in both positive and negative ripples throughout the Wasteland.

I find that sort of gameplay compelling, especially when you replay the game. What might at first seem to be a clear situation becomes murky as you discover more about it. I'm hoping there are a lot of issues like that in Wasteland 2, the last game that billed itself as a game with no right or wrong answers was Dragon Age Origins. And it may as well have said "There are no right or wrong answers, because no matter what you do the world stays bland and uninteresting!".